Category: Ed Stelmach

Categories
Alnoor Kassam Art Johnston Bill 202 Bill 203 Bill 204 Dave Bronconnier Ed Stelmach Jeff Johnson Laurie Blakeman

provincial representatives minding [municipal] affairs [re: bills 202, 203, 204].

Municipal issues are a hot topic for MLAs introducing Private Member’s Bills in this session of the Alberta Legislature:

Bill 202: Municipal Government (Municipal Auditor General) Amendment Act, 2009

Introduced by Calgary-Hays MLA Art Johnston. The AAMDC is waiting for more details, but the AUMA has written to Premier Ed Stelmach raising concerns about the “bureaucracy and increased costs, to both the Province and municipalities,” which they argue could be created if this Bill becomes Law. This Bill could also have the unintended consequence of creating increased tension between the province and municipalities, as many municipalities (including both the Cities of Edmonton and Calgary) already employ their own Auditors who report to the elected Councils. While I support increases accountability and transparency, I would hope that a new Auditor General would not face the same funding challenges that have plagued the provincial Auditor General over the past few months.

Bill 203: Local Authorities Election (Finance and Contribution Disclosure) Amendment Act, 2009

Introduced by Athabasca-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson. As rules around municipal campaign financing currently vary from municipality to municipality, this Bill would bring law and order to one of the last frontiers of campaign finance in Wild Rose Country. Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier has recently introduced recommendations to change campaign finance regulations after his 2007 opponent, Alnoor Kassam, self-funded a $1 million dollar campaign against the incumbent Mayor. Increased consistency, transparency, and accountability on the municipal level is a good start, but there’s still a long way to go.

Bill 204: Municipal Tax Sharing Act, 2009

Introduced by Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman. Especially important in areas of the province such as Edmonton’s Capital Region, the creation of municipal tax-sharing agreements and formulas are a critical growth management issue in Alberta. I’m unsure how this Bill would complement the recently agreed upon ‘peace in our time‘* among the 25 Capital Region municipalities, but I’ve always thought it likely that provincial legislation would need to be enacted before we would ever see concrete action on this issue. Unfortunately, due to Blakeman’s political geography in the Legislature (sitting in the 9 MLA Liberal caucus, and not in the 72 MLA PC caucus), it’s very likely that Bill 204 will meet a similar fate to Kent Hehr‘s Bill 201 and be defeated.
Here’s video of Blakeman introducing Bill 204:

*More on this later.

Email
Categories
Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft Neil Waugh

last thoughts on neil waugh.

Provincial Affairs/Fish & Game columnist Neil Waugh was one of twenty staff laid off at the Edmonton Sun yesterday. A fixture of the Alberta political scene for decades, Waugh seems to have become one of the latest casualties of continent-wide media layoffs.

Though I wish him good luck in his future endeavors, in my humble opinion, Waugh was not an amazing political columnist, nor even a mediocre columnist. I struggle to name another mainstream political writer in Alberta who’s columns were as qualitatively inconsistent as Waugh’s. Perhaps he showed promise as a columnist at one point in his writing career, but over the past ten years, his columns had rapidly declined in their quality, and had come closer to resembling one-line rants rather than well-thought out columns.

I have had two experiences with Waugh that stick out in my mind. The most obvious was his January 2008 column that ingrained in infamy the quote “…Dave Cournoyer isn’t some obscure fat frat boy with a sticky-up haircut” (or at least in the header of this blog). Though I appreciated the attention on the issue, I was surprised that Waugh didn’t even attempt to contact me before accusing me of being part of an secret well-oiled Liberal Party conspiracy to tarnish the image of Premier Ed Stelmach (and as we all know, the same well-oiled political machine steamrolled to electoral victory in March 2008… oh wait…).

My second memorable Waugh experience sits more in the realm of bizarre. During a February 2008 media conference about the PC-connected Election Returning Officers, Waugh threw then-Liberal leader Kevin Taft a screwball question about Federal Liberal appointments to the Canadian Senate. Off-topic? Yes. Bizarre? Undoubtably.

Email
Categories
Alberta Enterprise Group Arthur Kent Cal Nichols Donna Kennedy-Glans Ed Stelmach Jack Hayden Joe Anglin Matt Altheim Peter Goldring Rob Anders Tim Shipton

mayoral ambitions take off in city centre airport debate?

– Cal Nichols has stepped down as Chair of the Edmonton Oilers to lead the Alberta Enterprise Group in its fight to keep the Edmonton City Centre Airport open. AEG was created in 2007 from of the ashes of the Grassroots Leadership Group, a corporate entity that essentially existed for the purpose of providing financial backing to Mark Norris‘ 2006 PC leadership bid (donations to party leadership campaigns are not tax deductible, but donations to GLG were eligible for tax deductions as business expenses). AEGs current President is former PC Party Director and Norris campaign manager Tim Shipton. With support coming from many well-heeled Edmonton business types, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this group become a launching pad for a Mayoral candidate in October 2010.

– Bill 19: The Land Assembly Project Area Act, introduced by Infrastructure Minister Jack Hayden, is meeting some resistance in central Alberta. Leading the charge is Green Party leader Joe Anglin, who described Bill 19 in a recent media release as “a punitive Bill that is chock-full of consequences for any landowner or citizen who would defy the Minister of Energy.” Over the past two years, Anglin has led a vocal group of central Alberta landowners in their fight against numerous provincial regulatory bodies and legislation. Former Green Deputy Leader turned Progress Party advocate Edwin Erickson joined the opposition to Bill 19 in an open letter.

– Federal Conservative nomination campaigns are beginning to ramp up in Alberta. In Calgary-West, Donna Kennedy-Glans will be challenging Rob Anders (and I wish her good luck). In Edmonton-East, it appears that Matt Altheim may be mounting a nomination challenge against MP Peter Goldring. Both Anders and Goldring were first elected to Parliament in 1997.

– Arthur Kent is continuing to publicly voice his disappointment in the current PC government. In a recent blog post, the internationally-known journalist and former Calgary-Currie PC candidate wrote that he believes Alberta will only regain its economic edge “once we deal with the disadvantage of a government that lets patronage trump free enterprise, and stubbornness get in the way of common sense.” Damning words from a former star candidate.

Email
Categories
Alberta Budget Carbon Capture Scheme Ed Stelmach Iris Evans

a year after alberta’s 2008 election, it’s easy to remain cynical.

On March 3, 2008, less than 40% of Albertans ventured into the March cold to exercise their democratic responsibility, and a full year later the debate around that election still rages.

There are likely many reasons why the large majority of Albertans failed to cast their ballot on that day, but one that continually arises in conversations is cynicism. It’s hard to argue that any of our political parties gave Albertans a compelling reason to race to the polls in droves a year ago, and I don’t believe that much has changed a year later.

Entering the second year of Ed Stelmach‘s first term as Premier, our province is facing many challenges. No longer rolling in the billion dollar surpluses that we had been told were thanks to the now dead Alberta Advantage, Finance Minister Iris Evans now tells us that this year’s $1.4 billion deficit is ‘market induced‘ (and not the fault of a political party which has been happy to take credit for Alberta’s fiscal prosperity over the past decade).

Should Albertans blame the Stelmach PCs for the economic downturn? Of course not, because it’s not their fault, but nor should Albertans praise them for the (also market induced) boom.

In their March 2009 edition, National Geographic shined a powerful international spotlight on Alberta’s oilsands, dealing an unintentional blow to the yet to be launched replacement for the Alberta Advantage. The $25 million taxpayer-funded public relations campaign is set to brand Albertans with a new identity by combating international criticism of the oilsands. Do Albertans really need government-hired public relations consultants to determine our identity? Albertans are more than just a brand, and our identity will be determined by our actions, not by government-hired public relations consultants.

The death of the Alberta Advantage has led the Progressive Conservatives to once again return to the realm of budget deficits, and as the government cuts important programs like the $2 billion GreenTRIP funding for public transit in our cities, they are continuing to funnel $2 billion into a Carbon Capture and Storage project.

It wasn’t that long ago that the governing PCs would claim and shame the opposition parties for wanting to spend Alberta back into a deficit. Now faced with a billion dollar deficit, the same PCs are willing to push aside 15 years of fiscal dogma to continue spending billions of dollars on an unproven technology, that if developed would put Alberta at the forefront of collecting yesterday’s dirty pollution, while the rest of the world focuses on tomorrow’s new and renewable energy.

Maybe Albertans are right to be cynical?

Email
Categories
Barry Styles Ed Stelmach Highwood Communications Public Affairs Bureau Ralph Klein

auditor general investigating highwood communications.

Alberta’s Auditor General has finally begun an investigation into the Highwood Communications affair.

After receiving $41.3 million in exclusive government contracts over a 10 year period, Highwood left $5.3 million in unpaid bills and applied for bankruptcy protection before closing its doors last November. At the same time Highwood was receiving these government contracts, its owner, Barry Styles, was a key player in Progressive Conservative election campaigns.

Since the early 1990s, Styles was involved in the election campaigns of former Premier Ralph Klein, and most recently Ed Stelmach‘s election campaign in March 2008. The day before the Auditor General’s announced his intentions to investigate, Klein defended Highwood, stating that the government should “stay out of it and let the private sector deal with it.“

In October 2008, Simon Kiss wrote a thoughtful explanation of precisely what happened in a guest post that summarizes the history of Highwood and its connections to the governing PCs. He has followed up on the recent news on his blog.

Email
Categories
Alberta Oil Sands Dave Taylor David Swann Doug Horner Ed Stelmach Iris Evans Kent Hehr Raj Sherman Ted Morton

winter 2008 pre-session primer.

With the Second Session of the 27th Alberta Legislature set to begin next week, here are a couple things that will be on my radar:

Throne Speech: Having attended five out of the past six Speeches from the Throne, I’m having a difficult time raising my expectations this year. No matter what is read, PC MLAs will roar, Opposition Liberals and NDP will oppose, but in the end, everyone will still love Norman Kwong.

Provincial Budget: Expected in March/April, this will be the first provincial deficit budget that Alberta has seen in over a decade. After sending out mixed signals, it looks like dipping into the Sustainability Fund will provide short-term protection to Premier Ed Stelmach and Finance Minister Iris Evans from being lynched by the rabid fiscal conservatives in the PC caucus. Are the days of the Deep Six long gone?

Health Care: Health Minister Ron Liepert will be in the spotlight over restructuring, layoffs, and the daily delisting and (un)delisting of services. Focus will be on Liepert, but I will be keeping an eye on his Parliamentary Deputy, Edmonton-Meadowlark MLA Raj Sherman, says or doesn’t say on the issue of privatization during this session.

New Official Opposition Leader: Calgary-Mountain View MLA David Swann will lead the Official Opposition into his first Legislative Session as leader. Can he lead the rag-tag Liberal Caucus as a cohesive unit? Pay attention to what Calgary-Currie MLA Dave Taylor does in this session.

Oil-bama: Stelmach has invited President Barack Obama to visit Alberta’s Oil Sands, but this isn’t about oil, this is all about Climate Change. The PCs are clearly concerned that Obama’s Climate Change agenda could force the traditional oil industry to clean up its act. It’s a market, and if the consumers (the United States) change their standards, it’s up to the producer (the oil companies) to either adapt or perish. It’s not hard to see what direction the energy market is moving towards when large energy companies, such as BP, continue to move resources into renewable energy projects in the United States. Albertans have a unique opportunity to become leaders in innovation in new cleaner energy markets, but as long as our leaders continue to focus on the old economy, we risk being left behind.

Land-Use Framework: Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton has the job of navigating his proposed land-use framework through the minefield that is the Alberta Legislature, and more specifically, the PC caucus. This is a very important step for Alberta, so critical debate and public attention towards this issue will be important.

Respect: Swann wants to tone down the rhetoric and dramatics in the Legislative Assembly, but it will take more than nice wishes to change an entrenched political culture. Without a joint statement between Swann and Stelmach, it is likely that it won’t become anything more than a nice idea. Bets on how long it take for Stelmach to accuse Swann of being a communist?

Post-Secondary Learning Amendment Act: Advanced Ed & Tech Minister Doug Horner will introduce amendments to the PSL Act that will pave the way for Mount Royal College and Grant MacEwan College to become Mount Royal University and Grant MacEwan University. Last week, representatives from the AUCC were spotted at Mount Royal assessing the transition.

Bill 201. Calgary-Buffalo MLA Kent Hehr will be introducing Bill 201: Traffic Safety (Seizure of Vehicles Containing Illegally Held Firearms) Act.

Lobbyist Registry. After years of promising to create a Provincial Lobbyist Registry, is there a chance that we might actually see some concrete movement this spring? (fingers crossed…)

Email
Categories
Dave Taylor David Swann Ed Stelmach Hugh MacDonald Kevin Taft

david swann meets ed stelmach, and faces challenges from inside the liberal caucus.

Liberal Opposition leader David Swann and PC Premier Ed Stelmach met yesterday to discuss niceties and the upcoming provincial budget. This is a positive step for both party leaders, and I hope that for Albertans sake, some semblance of civility can be preserved between the two men.

Swann’s challenge will be to balance the ‘spirit of cooperation’ while actually providing an effective opposition to the governing PCs in the Legislature (and this is probably as difficult as it sounds). It remains to be seen if the toxically partisan environment in the Legislative Assembly will allow any civility between the two party leaders to survive when the Legislature begins sitting in February. Up until the Fall 2008 Session of the Legislature, the tension between Stelmach and former Liberal leader Kevin Taft had gotten so heated that Stelmach would frequently accuse Taft of being a Red Menace.

He must also be weary of not taking a route too close to the one taken by former Liberal leader Ken Nicol. When replacing defeated leader Nancy MacBeth in 2001, then-Lethbridge-East MLA Nicol’s quiet and polite tone made it easy for the Klein PCs to railroad over the Legislative opposition and the Raj Pannu-led NDP to garner much of the media attention, leaving the newly reduced Liberal caucus (7 MLAs elected in 2001, down from 18 in 1997) in their weakest position in over a decade.

While striking a conciliatory tone with Premier Stelmach may be a productive start, Swann is likely aware of the challenges he faces within his caucus.

Managing Edmonton-Gold Bar MLA Hugh MacDonald and Calgary-Currie MLA Dave Taylor are likely going to be key challenges in keeping the rag-tag caucus together. MacDonald, who appears to have become almost obsessed with unearthing PC scandals, has fine-tuned the exercise of crying wolf, diluting the opposition Liberals’ position on many issues. As Swann’s former leadership challenger, Taylor holds some forceful opinions on the direction of the opposition and the Liberal Party which clash with some of Swann’s ideas (not that I believe a different name will solve the Liberal Party’s organizational and psychological problems, but more on that later).

If Swann is to lead an effective opposition in the Legislature, his caucus will need to reign in wild card Hugh MacDonald, while managing Dave Taylor’s recently bruised ego.

Email
Categories
Ed Stelmach Norman Kwong RCMP Investigation

air ed.

The Alberta’s taxpayer-funded Government’s fleet of airplanes flew empty 230 times in 2008.

Now, I have no problem with the Government owning and using airplanes, but it should be as cost and time efficient as possible, and this doesn’t seems to be the case:

“Government officials have said an Edmonton-Calgary flight in one of the fleet’s Beechcraft King-Air planes costs about $3,000. That works out to about $1,500 a seat, if there’s just two passengers.“

A WestJet Edmonton-Calgary return-flight would cost an estimated $342.65. That’s over $1,100 more affordable (if the $1,500 is referring to a return flight, which I’m not sure that it is). The Edmonton Journal article reports that Lieutenant Governor Norman Kwong took 94 one-way flights last year, and Premier Ed Stelmach took 93 flights in 2008 and 111 in 2007 (often between Edmonton and Calgary).

It’s probably pretty cool to have access to your own fleet of airplanes, but if the PCs are serious about trimming costs (a position which seems to change by the week), they should start with their own perks.

On the topic of the taxpayer-funded Government airplanes, the RCMP are continuing their investigation (which included raids of Alberta Justice and Service Alberta offices) into criminal conduct in the falsification of a misleading government memo submitted into a 2005 public inquiry conducted by Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The public inquiry attempted to determine why Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation delayed release of the flight logs of the taxpayer-funded airplanes, and 2007, the Privacy Commissioner ruled (pdf) that the PC Government deliberately withheld the flight log information for political purposes until after the 2004 election.

Email
Categories
Afghanistan Alberta Oil Sands Alison Redford Archie McLean Ed Stelmach Kent Hehr Lorne Gibson

alberta politics this week.

1) With inspiration from Barack Obama and Malcolm Gladwell, Jason Morris at Gauntlet.ca has some thoughtful insights on Alberta’s political environment.

2) Oil Sands Smog. An Environment Canada study obtained under the Access to Information Act predicts that sulfur dioxide will rise by up to 34 per cent by 2017 and nitrous oxides will rise by up to 24 per cent. Are you ready for acid rain in Fort McMurray?

3) While Chief Electoral Officer Lorne Gibson has called for increased transparency and accountability in party leadership races, Kent Hehr is asking Minister Alison Redford why Alberta Justice isn’t investigating 16 violations of election finances rules uncovered between 2006 and 2007 (including at least one violation committed by his party).

4) How are Alberta’s financial and economic prospects, Premier Ed Stelmach? Good, really bad, not as bad as I told you 24 hours ago, and rosy depending on which day of the week it is.

5) Good luck and safe travels to Journal reporter Archie McLean on his trip to Afghanistan. You can follow Archie’s Afghan tour at Assignment Afghanistan.

Email
Categories
Barack Obama Dave Hancock Ed Stelmach Gary Mar Washington DC

mr. hancock goes to washington.

Besides that he’s a good buddy of Alberta’s U.S. Ambassador Gary Mar, can anyone give me a good reason why Albertans are paying $3,000 to send Education Minister Dave Hancock to Washington D.C. to watch the Obama Inauguration?

If Klein-era style cutbacks are on Premier Ed Stelmach‘s mind, I’d imagine these are the sorts of frivolities that would be on the chopping block.

Email
Categories
Alberta Oil Sands Ed Stelmach Kevin Taft

november 24 to 26 in the alberta media. cynicism is inevitable.

Number of news stories in the main stream media covering Kevin Taft‘s non-binding Private Member’s motion urging the Government of Alberta to adopt rodeo as Alberta’s official sport: 14 (G&M, G&M, CP, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, Calgary Sun, Calgary Herald, CP, Metro, iNews 880, Canadian Cattlemen, CTV Calgary, iNews 880, 630 CHED)

Number of news stories in the main stream media covering a “secret” Ministerial Briefing written by a scientific expert detailing why Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) is not viable in Alberta’s oilsands, contradicting speeches made by Premier Ed Stelmach during his trips across Canada, the United States, and Europe that the $2 billion tax-payer investment in CCS would green the oilsands: 2 3 (CBC, Metro + Edmonton Journal)

Email
Categories
Alberta Oil Sands Ed Stelmach

the carbon capture pipe dream. alberta should abandon the public relations facades and plan for the future.

“Alberta’s engine drives Canada” is the title of an opinion-editorial attributed to Premier Ed Stelmach in today’s Toronto Star. The op-ed suggests that Alberta is in a position to drive Canada’s economic engine and is part of Stelmach’s oilsands rebranding campaign, which includes a visit to the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships today in Toronto. I fully agree that Alberta should take this unique opportunity to drive the direction of Canada’s economy, but I disagree with the direction the op-ed suggests.

The op-ed suggests that the $2 billion Government of Alberta investment in carbon capture and sequestration technology is “the best way for Canada to meet its emissions reduction targets.” Untimely for the article is a confidential Ministerial report obtained by CBC which advised that “[l]ittle of the oilsands’ carbon dioxide can be captured because most emissions aren’t concentrated enough.”

The lead scientist on this report, David Keith, is a professor of petroleum and chemical engineering with the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy at the University of Calgary. Keith was also named Environmental Scientist of the Year by Canadian Geographic in 2006. CBC reported that a frustrated Keith believes that because of the low concentration levels, ‘rational people shouldn’t focus on reducing emissions in the oilsands through carbon capture and storage.’

As the oilsands are the fastest-growing source of CO2 in Canada (set to increase from 5% to 16% of total emissions by 2020 under current expansion plans), a shift towards responsible stewardship of the oilsands could not only cut emissions, but also help address both the environmental and public health challenges facing the people who call northern Alberta home.

Downstream from the Athabasca oilsands is the community of Fort Chipewyan, which has been feeling the dramatic effects of the oilsands and tailing ponds on its water.

Canadians and Albertans shouldn’t have to choose between our economy and environment. By centralizing our economy around a non-renewable resource, we are creating an economy that is completely unsustainable in the long-term. Rather than celebrating mediocrity and resting laurels on public relations facades like carbon capture & sequestration, Alberta could be driving Canada’s economy in a sustainable direction, moving towards the development of human capital and a world-class renewable energy sector. Alberta has the financial resources and know-how to be a world leader, but as long as we continue to look to non-renewable resources as our future, we will just be digging our heads in the (oil)sands.

Additional: Mike Soron, AGRDT, Four Strong Winds, Straight Outta Edmonton, The Galloping Beaver, Far and Wide, Climate Progress, jpro86.

Editor’s Note/Correction: I have removed the section of this post referring to Dr. John Connor‘s situation with Alberta Health & Wellness, due to inaccurate sources. You can read more here. Thank you to the reader who pointed out the inaccuracy of the linked article.

Email
Categories
Dumb Answers Ed Stelmach NEP Pierre Trudeau

pierre trudeau, not the declining world economy, responsible for worsening financial crisis.

Having been only one year old when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau stepped down in 1984, I can’t claim to have experienced the havoc and devastation that his destructive NEP cast on Western Canada, but as an Albertan who grew up hearing what an awful man he was, I can admit that I’m pretty sick of listening to people complain about it. Twenty-four years later, it’s pretty clear that the fall back position of blaming the problems of 2008 on a Prime Minister who was elected forty years ago sounds just about as ridiculous as Sarah Palin claiming that Barack Obama is a Marxist.

This was the case in Question Period today when Opposition leader Kevin Taft asked Premier Ed Stelmach how the government planned to deal with the worsening financial crisis. You can listen to the exchange below:



It would be really nice if the next time Premier Stelmach decides that he doesn’t like a question asked to him in the Legislature, that he not blame an ancient Prime Minister for his inability to come up with a quick and clever response, but just answer the damn question.

Email
Categories
Alberta Oil Sands Ed Stelmach

alberta could blow more than hot air.

While Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach continues his tour of Europe this week (skipping last weekend’s First Ministers’ meeting), he should take note of recent moves by energy giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell. As expansions in Alberta’s dirty oilsands are slowing and the price of oil continues to drop, both companies are also looking beyond oil by continuing to expand their investments in clean energy markets.

Shell made the announcement months ago, and last week BP announced that they will be halting plans to build wind farms and other renewable energy projects in the United Kingdom and will focus developing renewable energy in the United States, taking advantage of government incentives for clean energy projects. Though wind is unlikely to replace demand for oil anytime soon, forward thinking moves like this by leading world energy companies should make Albertans think twice about being duped into supporting the short-sighted building of nuclear power plants in northern Alberta.

Also of note is a recent report from the Centre for Study of Living Standards on the Valuation of Alberta’s oilsands (h/t DeSmogBlog):

As the CSLS notes, the tar sands are “the largest contributor to Canadian emissions growth. Since the early 1990s, output growth in the oil sands sector has been so great that total emissions from this source have increased even as emissions per unit of output (intensity) have declined by as much as 45 per cent. These trends are expected to continue into the foreseeable future and the oil sands are projected to account for 41-47 per cent of ‘business-as-usual’ Canadian emissions growth between 2003 and 2010.”

If Canada and the United States are going to get serious about reducing GHG emissions, it seems obvious that they would start with the biggest and fastest growing point source on the continent. There are, unfortunately, 1.5 trillion reasons why that will be one of the hardest places to make progress.

Email
Categories
Barry Styles Ed Stelmach Highwood Communications Ralph Klein

auditor general to investigate highwood communications.

Only days before the Alberta PC annual convention is to begin in Jasper, Auditor General Fred Dunn has confirmed that he will be opening an investigation into Highwood Communications, a firm operated by PC-insider Barry Styles. After leaving $5.3 million in unpaid bills, Highwood applied for bankruptcy protection after receiving $41.3 million in exclusive government contracts over the past 10 years.

The day before the Auditor General’s announcement, former PC Premier Ralph Klein defended Highwood, stating that the government should “stay out of it and let the private sector deal with it.” Styles was a key player in Klein’s election campaigns since the early 1990’s and most recently helped current Premier Ed Stelmach in the March 2008 election.

Highwood’s Saskatchewan branch, the advertising agency for several departments of the Saskatchewan government, filed for bankruptcy in 1998, leaving liabilities of $582,000.

______________
Related Posts
September 26, 2008
September 23, 2008
September 24, 2008

Background: Court Documents pertaining to Highwood Communications
Court Report of Trustee on Proposal
Creditor Package
Notice of Intention-Creditors
Minutes of the First Meeting of the Creditors

Email